Mrs Bronwyn Bishop (Mackellar, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Seniors) Share this | Hansard source

In 2020. At the same time, they ask taxpayers to fork out $38 million to pay for an advertising campaign to try and convince good, sensible Australians—who may have more sense than the government, I suspect—that somehow this new tax is good for them.

It is no wonder that this government has succeeded in exempting itself from its own guidelines. First of all, I would point out that under both governments there were guidelines for how advertising campaigns had to be conducted. The department of finance oversaw all three sets of guidelines—the MCGC set, the Auditor-General set, and the watered down Allan Hawke set. All of those are written by the department of finance, and the department’s opening words are the same for all three sets. But what is different is that under the MCGC guidelines, under the previous government, there was no get-out clause. Any advertising campaign—it did not matter what it was—had to go through the system in order to go to air. But even under the Auditor-General’s so-called guidelines there was a get-out clause. It is no wonder that you wanted to get out of complying with the guidelines as set down, because they say:

Campaign materials must be presented in objective language and be free of political argument.

I do not think you have met that guideline. The guidelines state:

Campaign materials must not try to foster a positive impression of a particular political party or promote party political interests.

The guidelines say campaign materials must not:

… directly attack or scorn the views, policies or actions of others such as the policies and opinions of opposition parties or groups;

Goodness me—are we not disparaging and scorning mining companies? That would not comply with these guidelines. They then say campaign materials must not:

… be designed to influence public support for a political party, a candidate for election, a Minister or a Member of Parliament …

My gosh—no wonder you needed a get-out clause. When you should ask—

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